GA In General

Imagine what might happen, if New Zealand had an APPG

March 23, 2019

It stands for an All-Party Parliamentary Group whose members cast aside politics and focus on matters directly affecting real people and their livelihoods. In the UK, this is a long-established concept and its APPG-GA is a group of 203 MPs and members of the House of Lords who, among other things, have succeeded in a campaign to Cut the Red Tape at their Civil …

Want to subsidise Airways and the airlines? Have your say on ADS-B

March 17, 2019

Most aircraft owners will be aware that, as part of the New Southern Sky (NSS) programme, Airways is moving to Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast (ADS-B). The current secondary radar service will be replaced by ADS-B as the main source of surveillance information for separation of aircraft in controlled airspace. The CAA’s proposed rule change would make ADS-B mandatory for all aircraft in controlled …

More than 6000 GA pilots get EU grants to upgrade their comms

January 29, 2019

Funding provided by the EU has helped more than 6000 GA pilots and private aircraft owners to change from their 25 kHz radios to 8.33 equivalents. This issue is essentially no different from New Zealand’s switch to ADS B transponders, because in both cases GA operators must incur costs for equipment in a change that profits commercial players in the aviation system, and provides …

Why attempts to restrict New Zealand airspace for UAs must be blocked

November 20, 2018

Many folk in and around Alexandra (pop. 5440) were up in arms when a Christchurch-based firm called Skybase sought to restrict more than 500 sq km of Central Otago airspace in which to test unmanned aircraft. We do not know how many untested UAs are owned by Skybase in New Zealand, but we do know that Skybase is backed by US interests. We know …

Ice cold in Alex: UA operators get a frosty reception – and the threat of court action

October 22, 2018

Since we last looked at the Alexandra Restricted Airspace application for UAV testing, there have been some developments. Following a public consultation meeting held on 18 September, and requests from users, the closing date for submissions has been extended to 5 pm on Wednesday 07 Nov. The CAA has refused to release details of any risk assessments and Alexandra aviators are now threatening legal …

Unmanned Aircraft: Segregation is not integration, Mr Director

October 6, 2018

Remember the bad old days of New Zealand’s Next Big Thing? They featured such silly ideas such as farms for ostriches, alpacas or Angora goats, as well as the oft-confused Robert Muldoon’s pipe dreams. Most of these get-rich-quick notions crashed (and burned the investors). But those days may not be gone. Our government, and its Ministry of Transport in particular, has latched on to …

On radio-active clouds, and living in times past…

October 1, 2018

GRAFOR, the new MetFlight graphical forecasting service, has been widely welcomed. At last, we have a good visual depiction of what’s likely to happen. This is infinitely preferable to pages of capitalised abbreviations, the result of a submissive CAA, Airways and MetService obeying ancient ICAO rules, and supported by elistist fogeys who always insisted that, to read the weather, you must learn their arcane …

Cheaper ADS-B is already on the way – but somewhere else…

September 30, 2018

CASA in Australia has listened to its aviation community and will be developing rule changes aimed at making it cheaper and easier for Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) technology to be voluntarily fitted to visual flight rules aircraft. This action follows consultation which showed broad support for the voluntary adoption of ADS-B across general aviation. The consultation made it clear the installation of ADS-B in …

ADS-B: We know the science, but what’s the bottom line?

September 18, 2018

Anyone following the progress of ADS-B’s introduction to New Zealand will have noticed one Great Big Official Unknown: How it’s going to be paid for. We all know (and Officialdom has formally acknowledged) that the big financial winners from ADS-B in New Zealand will be Airways Corporation and the airlines. We also know that, for this country to fully enjoy all the safety benefits …

The first CAA Briefing: Now they’re talking a little more clearly

August 28, 2018

CAA Director Graeme Harris has issued his first CAA Briefing – to the surprise of many and the downright astonishment of some. The message was sent to everyone on the CAA’s mailing lists and it has now been published on the CAA website. The GAA welcomes this significant improvement in customer communications. Long may it continue and develop. We have been critical of shortcomings …

Category: GA in general